Elevating Real Estate Broker Connections: A Profile Page + Profile Completion Flow

Problem Statement

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OwnSpace, established in 2017, embarked on a mission to revolutionize the real estate shopping experience, both online and in physical sales offices. As the platform evolved into a comprehensive suite of tools, it aimed to empower builders by offering tailored experiences, streamlining internal processes, and driving business growth. The challenge arose when OwnSpace recognized the critical need for a robust profile page to enable real estate brokers to effectively manage their relationships with clients and developers.

Design Objectives

1. Product Thinking: Instill a product-centric mindset by identifying specific use cases to drive a purposeful design.
2. User-Centric Interviews: Conduct immersive user interviews to discern the nuanced needs of vendors, clients, and fellow brokers in a broker's profile.
3. Optimized Data Hierarchy: Define a thoughtful hierarchy for organizing data points within the profile, emphasizing user experience and ease of interaction.

Design Process

As the sole designer collaborating with a product manager, the dynamic startup environment of OwnSpace necessitated an agile and user-centric design process.

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Key Findings

1. Regulatory Compliance: Brokers' personal identification and license information must comply with industry regulations, necessitating a streamlined verification process.
2. Vendor Decision-making: Vendors require a user-friendly profile displaying a verified ID and comprehensive data to facilitate their decision-making process when choosing a broker.
3. Categorization for Clarity: Organize the broker's profile into Personal Details, License Information, Brokerage Information, ID Verification(via Stripe), and Contacts/Social Links for a clear and intuitive user experience.

Solution

To address the challenge of ensuring brokers actively engage with and maintain an up-to-date profile, we implemented the following user-centric rules:

1. Rule 1 - Timely Prompting: Brokers receive a prompt to complete their profile within 5 minutes of logging in, aligning with their active engagement on the platform.
2. Rule 2 - Flexibility with a Limit: Brokers may choose to skip the prompt for up to three log-ins, respecting their autonomy, after which it becomes mandatory.
3. Rule 3 - Annual Reminders: All brokers receive annual reminders, aligning with industry practices, to verify and update their information in a structured manner.

Impact

These rules cultivate a culture of accountability, aligning with the user's journey and ensuring brokers' profiles remain accurate and current. This intentional focus on the user experience empowers brokers in the real estate marketplace, fostering more meaningful and collaborative engagements.

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Design, Iteration & Flow

Registration Form Optimization: During the registration flow, the team identified the need to incorporate Stripe ID Verification flows. Initially, we prioritized the names on the Broker’s government-issued ID, prefilling their names and address and disabling editing. However, testing revealed challenges:

1. Users neglected to update their ID with name and address changes.
2. Our system struggled with IDs featuring multiple middle names or space gaps in first names.

Ultimately, we abandoned this approach, granting users the ability to edit the information pulled in by their ID for a more seamless and user-friendly experience.

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The Profile Page (Iterations)

The Profile Page (Final)

The Prompts

The Flow